Poppy Cat

I second that! We have lots of restaurants and shopping available. I have three gluten free pizza places within a 10 minute drive from my house! The best part is that in Vancouver Washington there is a little store that is entirely gluten free!

Jealous!

I've worked in a ton of restaurants and it's such a gamble to make special requests. Some places will respect their customers and make an honest effort to accommodate special requests, others will be rude in the kitchen at least and deliberately spike your food with what you didn't ask for.

I don't want to spread negativity, but it really does happen. A lot.

All I can suggest is, if you're making plans, try to hit a restaurant during the off hours. When the place is packed, servers are hard pressed to remember little details like 'no croutons'. And the cooks don't have time to make special things. It's so far from ideal, but this is the nature of american restaurants. The best bet is small indie places. The staff are usually treated better by the management, and so they're more willing to take you seriously. Also, the managers care more about actually making customers happy since their business depends on it. Chain restaurants are the worst.

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I like eggs so I feel guilty but I've been giggling for the past 5 minutes after sniffing the dog and trying to figure out if she smells like the piece of homemade toast I just ate.

LMAO that's awesome : ) Eggs do remind me of doggy smell... dunno why!

I love chia seeds! I was thinking a lot about gelatin, too, if some small percentage in a recipe would improve elasticity of dough/batter.... and other sticky substances that might make a better sub for gluten. I want to study chemistry. omg.

Pamela's mix, eh? It seems to have a lot of fans, I'll look for it.

How big of a problem is cross-contamination? Nearly every gluten-free product I can find has "manufactured in a facility that also processes la la la la wheat la la".... i don't know how much it matters. Do you just eat something and wait and see how it affects you?

It seems to me that trying to keep the wheat flour/dust out of everything in the factory is like trying to keep an electrical charge off of an atom, but then, I suppose under strict laboratory conditions, it can be done.

I just finished reading through all the responses... thank you! I guess ( I hope ) that this will become easier to deal with. It's been less than a year since I tried being gluten free, so, .... ugh. I appreciate hearing from others, though. I don't know why that makes it seem easier to deal with, really, I wish no one had to put up with this.

The thing that I hate about gluten free bread (tried three or four recipes so far), besides the fact that it is crumbly and useless for sandwiches, unbaked in the center and burnt on the outside, and annoying to make, is that it always relies on eggs for a binder ingredient. I **HATE** eggs so much. gluten-free bread always has that faint raw-egg/wet-dog/smashed-worms-the-sidewalk scent and taste. Any work-around? What would cover that up? I want to try the bean bread a few posts up ^. I don't mind beans at all.

Bob's Red Mill Pizza Crust has been the best so far. As long as it doesn't brown too much, I don't notice the egg taste. And the texture isn't bad, either. Anybody tried using it to make flatbread? Or cracker-y foods?

I can relate to the anger. I was diagnosed in May of 2008. I am still in my angry faze, and I haven't fully accepted that this will be forever. It will never change. It's always such a hassle at the restaurant, and I'm tired of ordering salad. No quick snacks. I'm resentful that cooking, which I used to enjoy, is now basically a part time job because meals must be prepared not bought. And yes, I'm tired of rice cakes too. I can only eat so many.

I'm sure that one day I'll be past this, but it's depressing and I can't help but get mad. People don't understand. Especially about the fact that I USED to eat these foods and now I can't. They almost accuse me of lying about it. Or tell me to try, "just a little bite and see how you feel". People don't get it, and I don't even want to go out to eat anymore. I now eat to survive, which is such a downer.

EXACTLY

Shopping can be very disheartening. Until you get the hang of what to buy, I highly recommend The Triumph Gluten Free Grocery Guide. You can find it at wwwtriumphdining.com

That's much more reasonably priced than the other thing I saw. Don't remember what it was, I didn't bother to bookmark it.

Am looking at recipes now. !!

There are lots of mainstream food products that are safe for us to eat. You will need to read labels carefully on everything. I'm quoting below a post from Laura that has some useful links to learn which companies have labeling policies that they will disclose all gluten (Kraft is one). Not everything these companies make is gluten-free, but you just need to read the label to know.

I kept trying to find lists of manufacturers and products, but I can only find these like, $70 packages. Why must someone profit from this HUGE inconvenience? The internet makes distributing info free.

--sighing--

thank you, though. I find a lot here that's helpful and useful. This is the only worthwhile website I have found so far. :giving kisses:

It's got a lot to do with the holidays and eating things to please others, because I hate 'being that guy'.

Ugh, I don't know what it is, I am so mad lately about trying to adopt a gluten free diet. Every time we go to the grocery store I end up sad and angry because all I can find is cheese, peanut butter, and vegetables.

And I'm really starting to hate rice cakes.

I am mostly vegetarian because I don't care much for meat, but I find myself wanting it all the time now. I think it's culinary boredom.

What's up with chocolate and liquer or licquour or what is it? Is the 'vinegar' listed on my hot sauce cool or not? Distilled = okay? And holdup, what's wrong with baking powder? I'm reading every label I can, but geezy creezy I don't have enough money to buy gluten-free all the time! I hope no one's getting rich selling this stuff.

And there's these frequent dizzy spells I've been having. What is this, hypoglycemia now too? I am pretty much hungry all the time.

I guess it's a lucky thing I like to cook. Except that now it feels like work, and not something I do to relax anymore.

Oh yeah. Another reason to be pi55ed off.

. This is basically why people used to put a silver coin in their milk bottles, as it would help keep the milk from spoiling.

EW! I hope they washed that coin first!

I just got over a cold, too. Since trying to stay gluten-free, though, that was the only cold I've had. Spectacular!! I was getting sick about every 3 weeks before. <-- not exaggerated.

Robitussin is okay, I believe. When all the companies got that mandate to replace pseudoephedrine with phenylephrine, cold medicine became worthless. (Really: a study found the replacement had no effect on congestion). So, unless you need something to suppress coughs, (Robitussin DM), use honey and lemon in hot water. You can add a little rum or something to help dry out your sinuses. Drink that frequently and take a nap.

Or this one:

Boil fresh peeled ginger, chopped raw garlic, red pepper flakes in a tea kettle or pot. Add some turmeric (also makes a great gargle!), honey, and lemon juice after you take off the heat. Very soothing drink, hot or cold.

you can adjust all the ingredients to suit your tastes.

When gluten or wheat are used in non-food products, is the labeling straightforward, or do I have to be on the lookout for Ingredient X319-7Ja now, too? I've never seen them listed, so either luck was guiding my choices or I'm really, really, unobservant. Oh wait!! I know where to find out. Cosmetics Safety Database lists like, every ingredient ever, what names it's used under, brands that contain it, and a health-risk assessment. I can't remember the URL offhand but if you google it... that's an incredibly useful website.

I was about to erase this reply, but I thought others might like to check that out.

Peas!

Thanks for the info. I really am glad to have found this forum. A lot of what I've read here describes what I've been going through for several years. w00t!

I guess the reason I want an official sort of diagnosis is so that I can get on with life without being questioned-- I dread going to see a doc someday and being told that without some official evidence, they won't acknowledge what I know to be true. I've had overwhelmingly negative experiences with most medical professionals and throwing gluten intolerance into the mix just seems like its going to be a lifelong hassle when it comes to medical treatment.

I mean the big tip off for gluten was when my hair started falling out and suddenly I had a hypothyroid issue at 27. Thyroid problems are not really common in my family and while I credit my doc for knowing what was up right away with the hair loss, it kinda bugs me that no one but me questioned where this thyroid issue came from.

Oh hai I'm new. =*.*=

I went to a nutrition counselor this past summer who recommended a gluten-free diet. Going gluten-free has alleviated pretty much every weird symptom I've ever had in the last ten years (I was *so* hoping it would be something else! I love(d) bread.)

Anyway, she also recommended a blood test to find any other food sensitivities. I got this kit that I take to a lab, they draw blood and send it to Immuno Labratories, then *they* send it back to the nutritionist's office and we make an appointment to go over the results. That's all fine, but the test costs $355. So I'd love to get feedback on any of this:

--Should I really pay for that when I already know what my problem is?

--Would the blood test be an official diagnosis? (I don't even know how to begin with doctors...)

--Has anyone else used that particular test, was it accurate, etc?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Right now the holidays have me so annoyed that I'd rather have a broken leg than celiac. The leg would heal.

Grrrrrrrrr.

-poppycat